Students put work on display in art show

Morgan Carruthers shows her digital photography on an iPad at the Northumberland Regional High School art show that took place Wednesday evening at the school. AMY MACKENZIE – THE NEWS

ALMA – After spending a semester drawing, painting and creating, art students at Northumberland Regional High School compiled their work and showed it to the public Wednesday evening.

Art students at NRHS host an art show twice a year, at the end of each semester, to put their art out in the public eye and receive feedback.

“It’s their final evaluation and it’s a great opportunity to show their work to the public,” art teacher Dawn MacKenzie-DeCoff said.

MacKenzie-DeCoff said she has the students put on an art show rather than just submitting it to her for evaluation because the opportunity to share art in a face-to-face situation is important.

“I think primarily this is an era and a time when most people are used to posting things on Facebook and Twitter and the art show is really an opportunity for people to really project their work into the public, but also not in a virtual form, in a real hands-on, handmade type of media,” she said. “It also allows students to get some positive feedback on what they’ve been doing, for lots of these people, for the last three years.”

Students displayed their work in the school’s cafeteria and many people came out to see what they were working on all semester.

Jennie Cameron was one of the artists. The Grade 12 student said her favourite creation was a piece titled Button Lines that used different styles of buttons in rows to create a visual effect.

Morgan Carruthers’ art was shown on an iPad because she shares a lot of her art through social media and in digital forms.

“A lot of it is done through social media because I prefer to make digital art rather than material things,” she said.

One of the images on the slideshow on her iPad was quotes about mental illness written on someone’s body.

“It’s me really putting myself out there because a lot of my work is for other people.”

Carruthers said. While it’s a lot of work to prepare for an art show, she was happy to show her work to the public.

There were different levels and different styles of art in the room. MacKenzie-DeCoff said that’s because when students get to Grade 12, they have plenty of freedom to explore how they want to express themselves artistically.

“We do a lot of drawing and basic colour theory and water colour painting in Grade 11 and then in Grade 12, students are allowed to really experiment with anything they like: collage, mixed media, new media, digital painting, acrylic painting with traditional acrylic paint, watercolour, sharpie, spray paint, conceptual art, just about anything.”

The students in the art show were in grades 11 and 12. MacKenzie-DeCoff said all the art in the show had to at least be started in class.